The American Academy in Berlin was established in 1994. Its primary goal is to foster greater understanding and dialogue between the people of the United States and the people of Germany through its presence in Berlin, a city with which the United States should maintain its unique cultural, social, political, and historical links.

The Academy offers residential fellowships at its Hans Arnhold Center to American scholars, writers, policymakers, and artists, permitting them to pursue their work in a manner that encourages participation in the vibrant life of Berlin and Germany. The Academy also brings leading Americans to Berlin for briefer visits to facilitate a robust exchange of views between the people of Germany and the United States.

Funding for the American Academy in Berlin is provided almost entirely by private donations from individuals, foundations, and corporations. It is private generosity that has enabled the creation and success of this institution over the past dozen years and what will enable us to sustain the level and excellence of our activities throughout the difficult economic times ahead.

You may make tax-deductible donations to the American Academy from the US or from Germany. Please download the donation form here to make your pledge and to acquire the Academy’s account information.

For further information or to speak with someone regarding support opportunities, please contact Coralie Wörner at +49 030 804 830 x109 or co(at)americanacademy.de.

Thank you for your support.

Highlights of the American Academy’s fall 2010 program include lectures by noted academics Stanley Corngold, Catherine Gallagher, Martin Jay, and Laura Engelstein; Central Asia expert Ahmed Rashid discussing his new book with former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer; readings by New-York based authors John Wray and Han Ong; an inquiry into atheism and the modern novel by James Wood; a lecture-recital by composer/vocalist Ken Ueno; and clusters of events devoted to public policy as well as to the music of Richard Wagner. The fall semester’s visitors and fellows include Robert D. Hormats, US Under Secretary of State for Economic Business, and Agricultural Affairs; Pulitzer-Prize winning journalists Anne Hull and Dana Priest; Columbia University’s president emeritus Michael Sovern; climate policy expert Rosina Bierbaum; and writer and Iraq advocate Kirk Johnson.

Please download the Fall 2010 Program for further details. We look forward to welcoming you to the American Academy’s Hans Arnhold Center. Kindly remember to register in advance at program(at)americanacademy.de.

Unless otherwise noted, all events begin at 7 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

Hans Arnhold (1888-1966) was an important banker in Weimar Germany whose family villa  on the Wannsee welcomed many of the period's cultural leading lights. That same villa, now called The Hans Arnhold Center, is the home of the American Academy in Berlin.

Forced to emigrate from Nazi Germany, Arnhold re-established his financial business in New York City as Arnhold & Bleichroeder. The descendents of Hans and Ludmilla Arnhold provided the Academy with its founding gift, with the goal of fostering friendship and cultural exchange between Germany and the United States.

The fall 2010 issue of the Berlin Journal features Martin Indyk on President Obama’s foreign policy; an early draft of Rivka Galchen’s opening to her novel Atmospheric Disturbances; James Wood on atheism in the modern novel; original photographs by Camilo José Vergara; H. C. Erik Midelfort on the Enlightenment’s inroads into Protestant Germany; David Gelernter on the “e-book plague”; Todd Gitlin on journalism’s current crisis; Stanley Corngold on the interplay of Kafka’s legal and literary writings; Brigid Cohen on composer Stefan Wolpe’s early advocacy of cross-cultural education; David Abraham on attitudes toward immigration in Germany and the US; and Martin Jay on the intersection, via Marcel Duchamp, of the practice of photography and the medieval philosophical concept of Nominalism.

Print copies magazine are available free of charge in the reception area of the Hans Arnhold Center.

Please click here for more information about the Berlin Journal.

The Hans Arnhold Center, a historic villa on the shores of the Wannsee and the home of the American Academy, serves as both quiet retreat and hub of intellectual life.

The American Academy in Berlin is located in Wannsee. S-bahns and regional rail trains run regularly throughout the day. For a map of the area and directions to the American Academy, located on Am Sandwerder 17-19, please click here.

A variety of media cover evening lectures at the Hans Arnhold Center -- The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The International Herald Tribune, Tagesspiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Spiegel Online, The Washington Post, Die Zeit, and National Public Radio, among others. If you or your media organization would like to attend a lecture or request interviews with Fellows or Distinguished Visitors, please contact Program Assitant Nicole Busse to register, at nb(at)americanacademy.de.